The Dying Swan, 2020.

Video, 07:04 min.
 

The Dying Swan unfolds between exploitation and myth. Thomas—a dancer, model, and friend—is at once subject and collaborator. Filmed in a sparse studio, his body is used as a site for reenactment and resistance: to ballet’s canonical postures, to the fantasy of weightlessness, to the cult of perfection.

The piece begins with classical references—Degas, David, contrapposto—but lets them unravel through gestures and Vogue movements. Thomas shifts slowly between poses, held and broken, echoing both the rigidity of tradition and the fluidity of self-performance. His image is watched, desired, molded—not only by the camera, but by a long history of looking.

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The title borrows from Anna Pavlova’s iconic solo—a performance of graceful death—reimagined here through an ambivalent lens. Swan becomes man, collapse becomes form, and death becomes something rehearsed.